Agenda Date: 08/04/2015
Subject:
Title
An ordinance of the City of Littleton, Colorado submitting a ballot question to the registered electors of the city at the November 3, 2015 regular election, to amend gender and other references in the city charter.
Body
Presented By:
Michael Penny, City Manager
POLICY QUESTION:
Does city council support amending the charter regarding gender and other outdated references?
BACKGROUND:
City council passed Resolution 28-2013 creating the 2013 Littleton Charter Review Committee (LCRC) and directed the committee to review the charter and make recommendations to the council for amendments to address the current and future needs of the city. The LCRC met between 9/9/13 and 5/28/14 to review and discuss the charter, and on 8/5/14 made recommendations to council. On 5/26/2015, council requested staff bring forward the ordinances for the charter amendment ballot questions.
STAFF ANALYSIS:
Currently in the charter, the mayor is referred to as the president of the council; the mayor pro tem is referred to as the president of the council pro tem; the council is inconsistently referred to as council or city council; and the finance director is referred to as the city treasurer. This ballot question would amend language in the charter regarding these titles in order to reflect current practice. This question would also make capitalization of titles (such as city clerk and city attorney) standard throughout the charter and make the charter gender neutral. This includes changing references from "councilman," "councilperson," or "councilmen" to "council member" or "council members" and changing references from "he" and "him" to "he or she" and "him or her."
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of the ordinance.
PROPOSED MOTION:
Proposed Motion
I move to approve the ordinance on second reading submitting a ballot question to the registered electors of the city at the November 3, 2015 regula...
Click here for full text